


Decisions

by Annamaebananas



Category: RWBY
Genre: Backstory, Gen, Origin Story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:53:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26052985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annamaebananas/pseuds/Annamaebananas
Summary: It wasn't that Neo couldn't speak, it was that she chose not to. That was the first big decision she ever made, and everything changed when she made the second. Neo ran away from home, wanting something different, but by no means had she expected to meet Roman Torchwick, and by absolutely no means had she intended to join his gang. But after all, fate is a funny thing.





	1. Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> This is an old unfinished story I plan to rewrite eventfully, most likely changing it from first to 3rd person. (I'm going to finish this old version first) But anyways for now enjoy my old story, or not, like I can't make you enjoy it.

Up until I was about thirteen, I don’t think I ever really made any decisions for myself. I did what my dad told me, no questions asked. Everything in my life changed though, the day I made the two most impactful decisions of my life. 

When I was nine or so I began noticing how whatever I said was ignored or barley taken into consideration. I began to notice that my words didn’t matter. About four years later, I simply stopped talking, no one noticed no one cared. Stopping talking was the first big decision I ever made, and the second, well that all started one day on my way home from school. 

“Freak!” 

“Weirdo!” 

“Loner!” 

“Stupid!” 

“Crazy!” 

The voices followed me as I walked home from school that day, they always did, always had and always would. My house was only about a mile from the school, after what felt like an eternity, I made it to my home. It was small and secluded. My father hadn't wanted to live in the village. 

It was loud inside, just as it always was. My father and some of his friends were sitting on the couch in the living room screaming about some sport or something. I tried to be extremely quiet as I closed the door as not for anyone to notice me, but of course they did. 

“Hey kid,” my father called over, “What you doing back.” 

I stood still, not a word left my mouth. He glared at me, “You not going to say anything?” 

I nodded. 

“Of course,” he muttered, “uh go to your room or something, don’t bother us.” 

I nodded once again; I hadn't been planning on anything different. I made my way upstairs and plopped myself onto my bed. Out house may have been old and small but it did well blocking out sound. It was absolutely silent in my room. 

The silence was when the voices came back, they always did. 

“Worthless!” 

“Useless!” 

I don’t know why it had taken me so long, but in that moment, I realized something. Sitting here in my bed feeling sorry for myself was doing nothing for me. I was doing nothing whatsoever with my life and if I stayed like this nothing was ever going to change. And so, I decided I was going to make it change. 

I knew I had to leave if anything was going to be different and there was nothing left for me here. I slowly got up from my bed, not really sure what I was doing, and emptied my backpack and shoved the entirety of everything I owned in it. It honestly wasn't much, a few pairs of clothes, a couple books and the decretive umbrella my mother had given me years ago. She was all I had now, I had nothing. 

I swung the backpack over my shoulder and began to walk out, I was standing outside of the door when I decided that there was one last thing I needed to do. After pulling out a piece of paper and a pencil I wrote one last note before leaving, I’m sorry It read I can’t do this anymore, goodbye. 

And that was it, I left my room and walked out of the back door of my house, simple as that. I didn’t use the front so that my dad wouldn’t see me, and I left. 

Before this I’d always though that it would be hard to run away, to leave it all behind, but it wasn't. I made the decision and only moments later I was gone. Nobody questioned me walking through the town alone, nobody here cared much about me. 

I don’t know how long I walked; I don’t care how long I walked. I didn’t know where I was going; I didn’t care where I was going. I just kept going, going somewhere, somewhere could be me. Somewhere I could be Neo.


	2. A New Start

For the next few days of walking I was constantly followed by the feeling of someone watching me, but I was never able to find anyone. I passed through several villages and nobody payed me much mind. I was still astounded how easy it had been to run away. 

The whole time I would constantly be looking behind me. I always expecting someone to have come to take me home, but no one was ever there. In a way I guess I almost wanted to see someone there. I wanted someone to care enough to come after me, but no one ever came. 

If I really thought about it, even if someone cared enough to come after me, with the distance I had walked and the path I had taken, it was highly unlikely they would ever find me. That didn't stop me from wishing. 

For a while after leaving I recognized all the towns from trips, I’d gone one, but now, I had no idea where I was. I honestly didn’t care anymore at that was beginning to scare me. When I was tried, I slept, when I was hungry, I stole something and ate, I simply didn’t care. 

The village I was currently walking in was a small one, I’d never seen it before. I didn’t recognize any of the people either, but one person stuck out when I looked in the crowds of people in the streets. It was a boy, he looked a few years older than me with bright orange hair, always wearing a hat. 

I’d stuck around in the village longer than most, something drew me to it. I kept seeing that boy, everywhere I looked he was right there. I don’t why I felt so drawn to him, but I did. I watched him for a while but never our right spoke to him. 

In fact, I never had a single interaction with him until today. I’d walking down the main street, I planned to leave the village that day. No sense in sticking around any longer. I’d left at night, there was no particular reason I’d chose to leave at night. My sleep schedule was just messed up I didn’t sleep at a particular time in general, I just slept when I was tired. I still can’t decide if leaving at that time had been a good or bad idea. 

I was just moments away from leaving the village for good when a few of the kids from the village cornered me. I recognized these kids around from the few days I’d spent here but I didn’t know much about any of them. 

It wasn't the first time something like this had happened to me but that certainly didn’t make it any better. One of the kids, a green haired boy walked up to me and let out an awful sounding giggle, “Hey guys look at this freak!” 

One of the kids laughed in response, “Yo, looked at her hair, and eyes! That’s so weird! I’ve never seen anything like it!” 

“Me neither!” 

“I haven't seen her around before.” 

“Defiantly someone I would have noticed!” 

“Such a freak.” 

I thought leaving my town would make the voices leave, but I was wrong. No matter where I went the voices followed me, they just found different hosts. 

The green-haired boy, flicked my forehead and laughed when I flinched, “Hey kid, where you from?” 

Of course, I didn’t respond. “You deaf or something,” the kid asked harshly, “I asked you a question, and I expect an answer. Where you from?” 

It was moments like these that I sometimes doubted my decision to stop talking, was it really worth it? Though I constantly debated if my choice had been a good one, I never changed it. I’d been silent for a long time now and talking... well it felt wrong. So, I stayed silent.

The kids continued to throw rude comments at me, occasionally pushing me or something but, I didn’t move. They would get bored eventually. 

These kids were more persistent than the others before them and I didn’t have any idea how long they were going to go at it. So, I just waited, waited for it all to end. 

I don’t know how long I waited for them to stop and I don’t actually know if I they would have because I was lucky this time I heard a voice call out, “I don’t think that’s very nice of you kids,” he said swinging a cane around his arm, “Scram.” 

One of the kids muttered a quick crap before they all ran off leaving me and the person who had rescued me alone. It was then that I noticed who it was, it was that boy, the one I had been watching. I glanced at the cane he was holding; he didn’t look like he needed a cane or anything. I guessed it was just some odd fashion statement.

The kid looked at me and smiled, it wasn't a kind smile it was a sly one. “So,” he asked, “What's your name kid? I haven't seen you around.” 

I of course, didn’t say a word. 

“You going to answer me?” 

I shook my head. 

The boy muttered a quick, “We could use her,” and abruptly turned around, “By the way,” he called out while walking away, “My names Roman.” 

That was the first time I interacted with Roman, after that my life became very different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story makes me cringe. It's old but oh well, anyways have a good day, or night if you should be sleeping but are actually reading fanfiction instead.


	3. Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neo joins a gang I guess

After that whole ordeal I knew that I should leave, it was the best option and any sensible person would have, but something kept me. I stuck around in the village for a while longer, waiting to catch another glimpse of Roman, but I never saw him, not once. 

Eventually I decided to leave, there was only so long that I could convince myself of reasons to stay. Leaving wasn't all that hard, I’d only even known the place existed for just over a week, so I went back to aimlessly following the road, letting it take me wherever it may. 

I’d stolen quite an amount of food from the village and stuffed it in my backpack, along with a sleeping bag. I didn’t think that I would need to stop for quite some time. 

The first few days after I left were hard, I thought about Roman continuously and it kept me from thinking straight or moving forward much. I really wanted to turn back, but as days, then weeks, and eventually months passed with minimal stops, I began to think about him less and less. Our encounter was only short, and I didn’t see a reason to hold on anymore. 

I’d decided I would just forget him but fates a funny thing. It never lets you get what you want, sometimes it's just all together cruel, and I’m pretty sure fate likes to laugh in my face. 

I learned that one day when I stopped to restock food. Over the past few months I’d become a skilled thief, most of the time I would leave the village even before anyone noticed anything was gone. There were upsides to being a small, quiet little girl after all. 

I’d set my eyes on a small meat store, they were sure to have some sort of jerky. Jerky lasted a long time and I found I didn’t really have a way to cook so that was one of the foods I tended to steal a lot of. 

I watched the store for a while and waited until the owner went out, the store was left unattended so I made my move. The owner was a big man and it wouldn't end well for me if I got caught stealing from him. 

I quietly swept into the store, nobody was there, so far so good. After that I silently grabbed a large amount of packaged jerky and shoved it into my bag, then I quietly left the store. It was easy enough, nobody caught me and I had some food. 

I never stayed in the part of the village I had stolen from for long, so I moved further in to steal more food, just some jerky could last me a while, but not long enough. I didn’t want to stop for a while. I was currently in a sparsely populated area in Mistral and I’d decided to make my way to Vale. At the time I had no idea how stupid it was for a kid like me to think that they could make it all the way to Vale on their own. 

The next place I decided to steal from was a bread shop, bread and meat kept for much longer that fruits and vegetables, unless they were dried, and I didn’t like dried fruit, so I was good with bread and meat. 

Stealing from the second store was just as successful as the first. I waited around an hour of the store to be empty, I took the food and left. That was about as easy as it gets. I had no reason to stick around after getting all the food I needed so, I left the village, just like the others. I would probably forget this place existed soon enough. 

Overall the trip was very uneventful, just like everything else, right until the very end. 

I was leaving the village, no reason to stick around and when I made it to the end of the village and was ready to continue, I heard a voice. 

“You know stealing not nice right?” 

I turned to see a grinning Roman with his hat pulled over his eyes leaning on a wall. I stared at him in shock and slowly nodded, clutching my bag to my chest, I didn’t want him to take away my food. 

Roman didn’t even look at me as he started talking again, “It’s a shame really, a smart kid like you running and stealing from stores just enough to survive. So much more could be done with you.” 

I stared at him, my mouth gaping wide. How the heck had he found me? Was he some kind of little girl stalker or something? 

Laughing at the face I had made, Roman asked me a question, “You’re an orphan, right?” 

The question caught me off guard, I wasn’t technically an orphan, I still had a dad, he probably hadn’t even noticed I was gone though. I had no one who would look for me, no one who would wait for me back home, so I nodded. It was easier to just pretend that I didn’t have a dad at all. 

After receiving my answer Roman asked another question as he left his wall to walk over to me, “You’re also a mute huh?” 

Once again, I nodded, this time I was slightly more truthful. 

“I know what its like to be alone on the streets,” said Roman looking crouching to my level, “It sucks, but I can help you. You’re a smart, quiet and small. That helps you be good at stealing. With an amount of work, you could be an outstanding robber,” Roman grinned at me, “What do you say about joining my gang kid?” 

In that case I supposed, he wasn't going to take my food.

I’d known it was a bad idea, gangs were awful business around here, but for some reason I couldn’t stop myself, I slowly nodded my head. I wanted something different, and well, this was definitely different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, this is a thing. I just realized how short my older chapters are, oh well.


	4. Josh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new character and some shenanigans

After the short one-sided conversation with Roman, we left. I knew it was dumb, running off with some person I’d only just met planning to join his gang. I’d already done one thing I knew was stupid anyways, (running away) what did I have left to lose? 

Roman took the lead and I followed close behind him. He seemed only a few years older, but Roman towered over me. When I was around him, I almost felt safe. Nobody was going to hurt me with a person like him around. 

We’d been walking for quite some time, Roman had told me gang headquarters was only a few villages down, near the end of Mistral, but it was going to take us a while to get there. 

Throughout the whole walk Roman was complaining about someone taking his car or something so we had to walk the whole time. I’d been walking for so long at this point that a few more days of walking seemed like nothing. 

The walk to wherever we were going was much more pleasant than the rest of my trip. Roman had good food and knew how to start a fire, so I was never very cold for long. For my whole life I’d avoided gang members. I tried not to associate myself with them, and here I was camping with a gang member planning to join him. Thigs sure do change over time. 

The trip was relatively quiet, I didn’t ever talk and Roman rarely said anything, I wouldn’t respond so what was the point. He only really said anything when giving me instructions. 

Overall, I’d say the trip was uneventful, but my life never stays that way for long. 

Roman had walked up to me one day when we were camping for the night and spoke, “So kid, you wanna join my gang huh?” 

I nodded, he had invited me, right? 

“I said it was my gang when I asked you to join, but I guess that’s not entirely true, I run the gang alongside this boy named Alex. He’s tough and if you want to join your going to need to learn to fight. If you don’t things aren’t going to end well for you. Some day I’m going to teach you how to fight, and win, but for now I think its best to just teach you how to defend yourself. We can teach you how to fight better in the future. We haven’t got the time now. You cool with that?” 

I nodded and brushed myself off as I stood up, “Ok kid,” said Roman, “We are going to start with the bare basics. I’m going to push you, don’t fall over.” 

Roman only gave me a few seconds to register what he said before he pushed my shoulder roughly, I tried to hold my ground, but ended up falling over anyways. 

“First order of business,” said Roman, “Were going to have to work on your stance. Can’t have you falling over the easily. Stand up.” 

I stood back up, brushing myself off once again, we were currently camping in some forest on a patch of dirt. I couldn’t help but think that this area was Grimm infested. 

“First off, don’t hold your legs together like that, spread them slightly apart and bend you knees, just a bit,” said Roman pushing my shoulder into the right position, “Now I’m going to push you over again, don’t fall.” 

And this time I didn’t, I held my ground. For the next couple hours or so were spent with Roman reaching my various things. How to protect my face, the best ways to knock someone out if you need to run away and how to dodge another’s blows. 

After we were done, I ached all over and was about ready to sleep. Roman had told me that my endurance would get better over time, but I didn’t know how anyone could take this much without being exhausted. 

For the next few days we repeated this pattern, we walked for hours, stopped and trained then slept. Roman was right, I was getting better at it and the training was getting less tiring. 

For the first time in years, I almost felt comfortable. Roman was a gang master, I knew I shouldn’t trust him, but for some reason I simply couldn’t see him hurting me. I was beginning to like Roman and my life had a pattern, for a while I knew what to expect from life, and I liked it. 

But as I’ve said, nothing lasts forever. 

I was training with Roman one night, just like every other, when I heard a noise above us, a bit out of the ordinary, it was generally silent out in the forest, that was where we normally traveled, trying to avoid the public eye. 

When I looked up a saw an air aircraft, I’d never seen what kind it was before, it relatively small and probably wasn’t a super nice or expensive one. 

I didn’t like it, but Roman seemed to recognize it. “Hey kid,” he said looking over to me, “I just found us our ride,” Roman pulled out a cane, the one I’d seen him with on our first encounter and pointed it to the sky. I thought this was strange at first, but then the top flipped off and he fired something into the air. 

What ever Roman had fired into the air exploded into some kind of firework looking thig that was black. Whoever was driving the aircraft must have seen it because the aircraft began to tilt forward, obviously intending to land near us. 

Instead of finding a clearing to land it, whoever was driving the aircraft decided to just chop down whatever was in his way and land right next to us. 

The gusts of wind whipped my hair around my face as a stared in awe at the aircraft landing by me, I was too distracted to notice that the aircraft was landing TOO close to me, Roman had to yank me out of the way so I wouldn’t end up in pieces. 

Soon enough the aircraft had landed and a man with messed up bright blue hair and yellow eyes jumped out of the aircraft. “Next time you need a ride,” the man said glaring at Roman, “Don’t call me, it was a pain to find you and I’m not too keen on doing it again.” 

Roman punched the other guy lightly in the arm, “You say that every time josh, you know you’ll do it again.” 

“Only because you rank higher than me.” 

“Well anyways let’s get going,” Roman gestured for me to follow and began to walk towards to aircraft, “Let’s make this trip back a quick one, Alex is going to kill me I was supposed to be back with new recruits like a week ago.” 

It was then that Josh seemed to notice me for the first time, he glanced at me, then at Roman, and at me again, “Uhh,” he started, “Who’s the kid, she looks kinda funky?” 

“I said I would come back with at least one new recruit, didn’t I?” 

Josh looked at me skeptically, “Uh when he asked for new recruits, I don’t think that’s what he meant.” 

“Don’t worry,” said Roman leading walking into the back of the aircraft and taking a seat, “I’ve been training her for the past week or so and I think she’s going to work out great.” 

I took a seat next to him, it was clear Josh didn’t like me and the situation was feeling kind of awkward. 

Josh looked at me and sighed, “I’m not sure… anyways, what’s your name?” 

I stared at the floor and internally laughed at myself as I realized that I’d been hanging out with Roman for about a month or so now and he didn’t even know my name. Sometimes not talking got a little awkward and this was defiantly one of those times. 

I didn’t need to talk this time though Roman did it for me, “She’s a mute,” he shrugged, “I actually don’t know her name.” 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Josh exclaimed face palming, “Your bringing a mute little girl you know into our gang! Your crazy, I suggest ditching the girl, she’s not going to be of much use.” 

In that moment I started to panic, Roman may not have been much, but he was all   
I had right now. The only thing. 

Roman wrapped his arm around my shoulder and laughed, “Oh common I’m gunna keep her, now let’s go. No need to keep Alex waiting any longer.” 

Sighing once again Josh made his way to the piolets seat, “I guess this is your choice, but Alex is going to be seriously ticked off.” 

“Let him,” said Roman shrugging, “Now get going chicken!” 

“Your seriously crazy man.” 

“You don’t think I know?” 

“Oh, I know you know,” said Josh starting up the aircraft, we were finally on our way and I had no idea what the heck to think about this. I just hoped that by the end of the day I would still be alive.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well this exists


End file.
